Luxury tree houses France Tree houses are now common but those from the Puybeton Domaine are unique. Made of pine wood with larch roofs, they indeed have an architecture inspired by three castles of the Perigord region : Montbazillac, Mirandes and Hautefort. Set amid 10 ha of forest and meadow, near Bergerac, in Dordogne, sleeping two, four or six people, they offer wonderful countryside views and boast luxurious, comfortable and cosy interiors. Two of them even have open-air hot tubs on their terrace. Breakfast arrives in a wicker basket hooked to a pulley that guests tug up. Rates : from €200 to €250 per night for two persons. Information and bookings : 0630642600 www.chateauxdanslesarbres.fr Wine themed river cruise France For the first time, a company runs day-long cruises along the Garonne river, the Gironde estuary and the Dordogne river to discover the regions where are produced the Blaye Côtes de Bordeaux and Côtes de Bourg wines. Taking place every Thursday from May 16th to October 25th, they depart from Bordeaux and include a tasting of wines from the two appellations, a wine and food pairing lunch, a guided tour of the fortress of Blaye and of the village of Bourg, a visit of a chateau with wine tasting and a return by bus to Bordeaux through the vineyards. A half-day cruise is also available. In this case, tourists leave Bordeaux by bus, drive through the vineyards to reach Blaye where they visit the fortress, then go to Bourg where they visit the village and embark on the boat to go back to Bordeaux enjoying wine tasting while on board. All comments and guided visits are in French and English. Price : €98 for the full day, €37 for half-day. €35 / €18 for 5-12 years old children. One person travel for free with each paying person till end of May. Information and bookings at Bordeaux tourist office : 0556006624 www.bordeaux-tourisme.com Rasteau Domaine de Pisan France The Cave de Rasteau’s 2009 Rasteau Domaine de Pisan is a harmonious, well balanced and complex blend of Grenache, Syrah and Mourvèdre coming from 35 years old vines planted over 300 m of altitude. It’s a typical full body Rasteau wine with wild fruits, roasted beans and spice notes but it also has silky tannins as well as freshness and fineness brought by the altitude. Price : €13.60. Cave de Rasteau : 0490109014 www.rasteau.com Ancestrum Cuvée France Only produced with the best grapes from the best parcels, the Cave Pfaffenheim’s Ancestrum Cuvée ranks among Alsace’s top wines. It features a pinot gris and a gewurztraminer both mid-way between dry and sweet white wines. Rich and tasty with a great length they are sold in bottles that have a superb design. Price : €96 per 6 bottles Cave de Pfaffenheim : 0389780808 www.pfaffenheim.com Renaissance in Lorraine France Till early August, Nancy, Bar-le-Duc and several other towns and villages of Lorraine celebrate the Renaissance, a golden age for the region. Scheduled events include large international exhibitions, conferences, symposiums, festivals, street performances, cultural tours and visits. Information : www.renaissancenancy2013.com A great Sylvaner France Sylvaner wines are often underrated but can be as good as Riesling or Gewurtztraminer, particularly those from the Zotzenberg Grand Cru appellation that is located near the village of Mittelbergheim. To be convinced taste the 2007 Sylvaner Grand Cru Zotzenberg from Frédéric Hansmann, a well-balanced, complex, dry, fresh and mineral wine with a long finish. Domaine Hansmann, Sylvaner Zotzenberg Grand Cru 2007 : 12,90 €, tel : 0388080744 www.vinhansmann.com Selection of Vinsobres wines France Tasting of the 2011vintage of several winemakers from Vinsobres, a red wine appellation from the Côtes du Rhône. Here is our top five. - Domaine Jaume, Altitude 420, €8.40, tel : 0475276101 - Cave Coopérative La Vinsobraise, Emeraude, €7.50, tel : 0475276422 - Domaine de Montine, Vinsobres, €10, tel : 0475465421 - Domaine du Coriançon, Cuvée Claude Vallot, €8.50, tel : 0475260324 - Domaine Saint-Vincent, Vinsobres, €9.50, tel : 0475276110 Dolphins count France Do you want to spend your vacations helping to preserve the Planet ?... The French association Cybelle Planète offers you to board 7 days Mediterranean cruises as an eco volunteer to participate in a study about cetaceans and biodiversity. Accompanied by a scientific chaperon, you will count bottlenose dolphins, sperm whales, fin whales, note their behaviour, their direction of travel,…. You will also help to sail the ship and to prepare the meals. The ship sails off the Var and Côte d’Azur in a zone stretching till Corsica. Nine cruises are scheduled between June 29th and August 30th. Price : from €950 to €1100 per person. Information : 0467603015 www.cybelle-planete.org Impressionism in Normandy France The Normandy region organizes the second edition of the Normandie Impressionniste Festival that celebrates this famous art movement. This edition has water as its common thread and is open to all form of art : painting, contemporary art, cinema, photography, music, literature. It features more than 600 events across the whole of Normandy including four major exhibitions that will be held in Rouen, Caen and Giverny. Information : www.normandie-impressionniste.fr Promising winemaker France Owning vineyards near Orange, in the Rhône Valley, Vincent Baumet sold all his grapes to the local cooperative till 2009. In 2010 he started to produce his own wines that are already acclaimed by wine enthusiasts. Taste the Côtes du Rhône red Velours 2010, a silky well-balanced wine showing aromas of red berries, yet complex, and with a long finish. A great wine that costs only €7.50 a bottle. Tel : 0490308699 Louvre–Lens France The Louvre museum just opened opens its first provincial branch in the town of Lens located 200 km North of Paris. Housed in a futuristic glass and aluminum building designed by a Japanese architectural firm, the "Louvre-Lens" consists of three exhibition spaces. The main one is the 120 m long and 3,000 square meters large Great Gallery of Time with reflective aluminum walls on which nothing at all hangs. Instead, the 205 works spanning from the fourth millennium BC to about 1850, chosen from all eight of the Louvre’s Parisian departments, are disposed on little free-standing walls. The approach is chronological along the length of the building with, across the width, what was happening in different countries and civilizations at any given time. As the Louvre-Lens has no permanent collection, most of these works will be in place for five years, with some 20 per cent of them changing annually. A second, gallery called the Glass Pavilion will host exhibitions changing every year on themes always related to the main show and the first one is dedicated to time perception. As to the third gallery, it will host two temporary exhibitions per year and the inaugural one is a magnificent introduction to the Renaissance, showcasing more than 250 paintings, sculptures and engravings including Leonardo da Vinci’s last masterpiece “The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne”. Louvre Lens. Rue Paul Bert, 62300 Lens. Open every day except Tuesday from 10am to 6pm. Free admission to the Great Gallery and the Glass Pavilion till the end of 2013. Admission to the temporary exhibition : €9 / €8. Information : 0321186262 www.louvrelens.fr Weightless flights France Everyone will soon be able to fly weightlessly like an astronaut without leaving the atmosphere on a space rocket. From March 2013, for the first time in Europe, Novespace, a subsidiary of CNES (Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales), will indeed offer tourists zero-gravity discovery flights on board of the Airbus Zero-G normally used by the space agency for its research programmes. The two and a half hour flights will comprise fifteen parabolic arcs, one achieving Martian gravity, two lunar gravity and twelve zero gravity for a total cumulative time of 5 minutes in weightlessness. They can accommodates up to 40 passengers divided into four groups in the free-floating zone, each of which being under the supervision of two instructors. Depending on the date, flights will depart from Bordeaux Merignac or Paris Le Bourget airports and the programme also includes a briefing, a presentation of parabolic flights, a visit of the aircraft, two light meals and a distribution of diplomas. Marketed by Avico, these zero gravity flights are only accessible to people over 18 years old and providing an appropriate medical certificate. Bookings are already open. Price : €5980 per person. Information and bookings : 0158612727 www.AirZeroG.com Unusual bars and restaurants France A bar where you can also take a shower, an art squat and hotel school where you can have a lunch, a restaurant where diner is served by a former butler to the Queen of England,… These are some of the 150 unusual bars and restaurants of Paris that are listed in the guidebook written by Pierrick Bourgault : Paris Bars & Restos insolites, €17.90, Jonglez Editions. International theatre France Located in Genevilliers, near Paris, the T2G theatre focuses on contemporary creation and its 2012 / 2013 programme features several shows created by international authors that will be performed in English with French surtitles. “Drugs kept me alive” (November 23rd – 25th) a solo by Belgian director, painter, dramatist and visual artist Jan Fabre that features dancer and choreographer Antony Rizzi. “Etant donnés” (November 27th – December 2nd) by Jan Fabre, directed by Swedish Markhus Ohrn. “Contes d’Amour” (February 2nd – 7th), by plastic artist and director Markhus Ohrn, that was presented at the 2012 Avignon Theatre Festival. Aliados (June 14th – 19th) an opera by Argentinean musician Sebastian Rivas directed by Antoine Gindt. In addition, two plays by Japanese director Oriza Hirata will be performed in Japanese with French surtitles, “Les Trois sœurs, version androïde” and “Sayonara” (December 15th – 20th), as well as one in Spanish, “Muerte y reencarnacion en un cowboy” (January 11th – 19th) by Argentinean Rodrigo Garcia. T2G. 41 avenue Grésillons 92230 Gennevilliers. Tickets : €24 / €15. Information : 0141322610 www.theatre2gennevilliers.com White wine from Auvergne France Auvergne too produces good wines. Taste the Saint Roch 2009 from the Cave Saint-Verny. This fresh, crispy and fruity dry white wine made from Chardonnay grapes is excellent and only costs €5.50. Cave Saint Verny, 63960 Veyre-Monton, tel : 0473696011 www.saint-verny.com Immersion in a kitchen brigade France Located in the ski resort of Megève, the 3* restaurant “Flocons de Sel” offers you to join its kitchen brigade for a day, find out what it's like behind the scenes of a gourmet restaurant and appreciate the excitement of the service. After spending the morning in the kitchens to help prepare the dishes for the lunch service, you can either enjoy your lunch in the kitchens so that you can watch the dishes being sent out, or in the dining room. You may also remain for the afternoon to prepare dinner. Called “Immersion”, this full day cookery class costs €120. Information and bookings : 0450214999 www.floconsdesel.com Drive a straddle tractor France For the first time in the world, tourists can drive a straddle tractor through a vineyard thanks to a unique simulator created by the Maison des Sancerre. Seated in a real tractor cabin, they face a video screen replacing the windscreen where a 3D animated movie shows in real time the movements of the vehicle as it reacts to the driver’s actions. The pilot must trim as quickly as possible four plots of vines without damaging them and go from one to another driving on tracks and passing over a narrow bridge. Maison des Sancerre. 3 rue du Méridien, 18300 Sancerre. Open every day from March 31st to November 11th from 10am to 6pm, till 7pm in summer. Admission : €5, includes visit to the museum and the garden. Information : 0248541135 www.maison-des-sancerre.com

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